Between 26 and 28 August, the 2014 China Internet Conference took place in the Beijing International Conference Centre. State Internet Information Office Vice-Director Ren Xianliang delivered an address at the opening ceremony of this Conference.

The 2014 China Internet Conference ceremoniously starts here today, this is a grand occasion for our country’s Internet circles this year. I sincerely represent the State Internet Information Office in expressing warm congratulations for the successful convention of the Conference.

Since it was first organized in 2002, successive Internet Conferences have been closely tied up with trends in the sector’s development, have incessantly explored and innovated, its content has become ever richer, its forms have become ever more diverse, which fully reflects the huge achievements made in our country’s Internet development, it has become a distinguished gathering for the sector to jointly discuss major affairs on Internet development, and has played a positive role in deepening cooperation and exchange, stimulating sectoral innovation, and moving the sector’s development forward.

This Conference’s theme is “creating limitless opportunities – forging an economic era for a new age”, which gives prominence to the important position and role of the Internet in assisting economic development, stimulating social transformation and enriching the lives of the common people. This topic is very important, I hope everyone fully uses the platform that this Conference created to jointly explore channels to innovate information technology, safeguard cybersecurity and move informatization forward, and to promote the continued healthy development of China’s Internet.

In the 20 years since China’s complete access to the international Internet, our country’s Internet has seen developments at flying speed, and it has become the largest Internet country in the world with 6332 million netizens. At present, the Internet has merged into every aspect of social life, it has profoundly changed economic and social development, and people’s production and living methods, it has promoted the innovation of social management and the modernization of the governing system, and brought unprecedented new opportunities and new challenges to Chinese society.

In the beginning of this year, the Centre established the Leading Group for Cybersecurity and Informatization, General Secretary Xi Jinping personally took up the post of director of this Leading Group, at the first meeting of the Leading Group on 27 February, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward the important judgment that “without cybersecurity, there is not national security, without informatization, there is no modernization”, he stressed that our strategic objective is to build a strong network country, and the strategic deployment to build a strong network country must advance in step with the “Two Centuries” struggle objective. This fully reflects the firm determination of the Party and the State in protecting cybersecurity and promoting the development of informatization. The Centre is paying great attention to cybersecurity and informatization work, which as also placed great expectations on Internet circles. We must deeply comprehend the spirit of the Centre, closely follow the tide of the technological revolution in information technology worldwide, and vigorously throw ourselves into constructing a strong network country.

Here, I would like to raise a few points of opinion, and exchange and explore them with everyone.

First, we must make innovation into the perpetual thread of Internet development. When looking over the history of the Internet’s development, every technological breakthrough is the result of people diligently seeking out incessant innovations. It can be said that innovation is the genome of the Internet, and the source of the Internet’s vitality and vigour. There are no limits to the development of the Internet, neither are there limits to innovation, we must now squarely face up to the great opportunities brought by a new round of scientific and technological revolutions and industrial change. In the area of the Internet, we must urgently accelerate the implementation of the strategy to drive development with innovation, with participation from many sides, working hand in hand, and jointly forge a cyberspace that is full of vigour and rich in innovation.

We must promote the close integration of Internet innovation and economic and social development, encourage and support, small, mid-size and micro-enterprises to vigorously participate and compete, stimulate the vitality of the market, lay stress on giving rein to the decisive role of the market in allocating resources, and ensure that enterprises truly become the core and backbone forces in Internet innovation. We must persist in a problem-based orientation, closely follow new global Internet science and technology development trends, clarify the direction of the main attack in Internet innovation, enhance original innovation, integrated innovation, and import-digestion-re-innovation capacities, and seize the commanding heights in Internet science and technology competition and future development. We must strive to improve the environment for talent development, improve talent evaluation and incentive mechanisms, establish and complete talent fostering systems, select, use and employ talents well, and strengthen the knowledge support driving Internet innovation. We must strengthen international innovation, further accelerate the pace of “bringing in” and “marching out”, actively participate in global science and technology exchange and cooperation, support enterprises in establishing research and development bodies overseas, and vigorously merge them into global innovation networks.

Second, we must make media convergence into an important part of Internet development. The development of the Internet has promoted the cross-boundary convergence of traditional media and new media, the converged development of traditional media and new media has become an important trend in the development of Internet content. Promoting the converged development of traditional media and new media is an urgent and strategic task, we must establish integrated development ideas, and do more exploratory work to promote the convergence of traditional media and new media in areas including content channels, platforms, operations and management.

We must persist in Internet thinking, act on the basis of the development laws of new media, plan and move work in all areas forward, we must fully use the most advanced network technology means to transform traditional media, innovate information dissemination models, and occupy the commanding heights of information dissemination, including using microblogs, WeChat and other such platforms, operate good legal persona accounts, and broaden user scope; use big data and cloud computing technology in the production, storage and distribution if news products; under the precondition of respecting user privacy, provide individualized and localized news services grounded in the people’s needs, enhance news and propaganda effects in the mobile Internet environment.

We must persist in using advanced technology as support and content construction as the root. New Internet technologies and new businesses emerge incessantly, and change information carriers and forms, yet what remains unchanged is the competitive rule that “content is king”. We must give rein to the superiorities of traditional media and new media, fully utilize new technologies and new methods, develop through convergence, and give rein to traditional media’s strengths in areas such as information gathering, analysis and interpretation to the greatest extent, at the same time, we must use new media’s forms of expression and dissemination methods to display news and information products better.

We must persist in differentiated strategies, and march the path of characteristic development. There is no one model or path for converged media development, different media forms and different media organs must strengthen the extent to which they suit measures to local conditions, explore pluralisation, formulate development strategies suited to the characteristics of each, draft roadmaps and timelines, get onto the path of differentiated converged development as soon as possible, and avoid homogenized, malicious competition.

Third, we must make security into a powerful guarantee for Internet development. Security is the precondition for innovation and the guarantee for development, it is the Internet’s “lifeline” and an indication of core competitiveness. At present, our country’s faces a very severe cybersecurity situation. Up to now, our country has not formed indigenous and controllable computer technology, software technology and electronic technology systems, core technology and crucial services used in important information systems and crucial infrastructure still rely on the outside world. The servers, storage equipment, operating systems and data bases of our government departments and important industries are mainly foreign products, and it is difficult to be optimistic about the cybersecurity situation.

Our country is one of the main victims of cyber attacks, a report from the National Internet Emergency Response Centre indicates that the number of alterations and backdoor attacks against our country’s Internet sites has shown a rising trend for successive years, while government websites have become an important target for attacks. The absolute majority of cybersecurity threats emerge from website information systems and are especially induced by using security leaks existing in systems, some relatively well-known media, finance and payment bodies have become the target of imitation websites, bringing real threats to national information security and financial security.

Grasping indigenous, controllable, secure and trustworthy core Internet technology is the key in realistically guaranteeing cyber and information security, and even national security. In the area of core technology, especially in the areas of chips and operating systems, we must – from the height of safeguarding national security – expand our capability to tackle strategic technological problems, and bring out our own competitive products. Perfect security protection systems, build strong “dikes and dams”, guard “the passes” well, and block “back doors”.

On the other hand, network and information security are not limited to the technical level, they also involve cultural and ideological security, which merit our high attention. The fragmented and high-speed development of network technology has led to major changes in the media structure and the public opinion ecology. All kinds of new technology platforms fostered on the Internet have enabled ever more people to become used to obtaining information through mobile phones and other mobile terminals, new media’s ability to set discussion topics and influence public opinion has progressively strengthened, challenging traditional media’s capacity for public opinion guidance. At the same time, the openness characteristic of the Internet has stimulated the cross-border flow of information, all kinds of ideologies and cultures are interacting, mingling and clashing on a global scale, on a daily intensifying basis. In Internet culture dissemination, we should strengthen our national identification, ethnic identification, political identification and cultural identification, protect our “cultural borders” and defend the country’s cultural security and ideological security.

Fourth, we must make responsibility into an inherent demand of the Internet’s development. The development of the Internet has enriched every one of us, stimulating the Internet’s healthy and sustained development is a responsibility that all walks of society must shoulder. Government controlling departments must take a leading role, and build, manage and use the Internet well, promote the construction of a national network legal system, and strive to build a good ecological environment for the Internet. Internet enterprises shall have a central role, abide by laws, regulations and sector norms, respect social responsibility, observe commercial ethics, move trust-building forward, and provide core competitiveness for the sustainable development of China’s Internet. Sector associations shall play a nodal and promoting role, participate in public service, carry out solid sector surveys and research, unite industrial circles, and launch sector self-discipline activities in a characteristic and influential manner. The broad netizens shall vigorously participate in cyber governance, and must ensure they use the web in a civilized manner, express themselves reasonably, observe the “seven baseline” and vigorously transmit positive energy.

Fifth, we must make the rule of law into a firm basis of Internet governance. On the global level, in the area of governance, through many years of exploration and practice, all countries have shaped management models with law at the basis, which comprehensively use technological, economic, administrative and many other kinds of means. In our country, governing the Internet according to the law is a concrete reflection and demand in the Internet area of ruling the country according to the law.

For many years, our country’s government has persisted in management according to the law, and scientific management of the Internet, it has striven to perfect the Internet management system, and promulgated a series of laws and regulations, which provided norms for the responsibilities and duties of basic telecommunications operators, Internet access service providers, Internet information providers, Internet users and other actors, and provide legal guarantees to build a healthy, civilized, harmonious and orderly network ecology and environment.

But generally speaking, our country’s Internet legislation still faces the problems that it is insufficiently up-to-date, it is not strongly systematized, and the status of law remains relatively low, it is especially so that, following the rapid development of new Internet technologies and businesses, related legal problems have emerged in quick succession, such as difficulties in gathering evidence after netizens’ property rights are infringed, disputes existing over jurisdictional powers in Internet tort cases, difficulties of applicable law in cross-border network crimes, etc. We must integrate the networks’ globalization, virtualization, dynamization and other such characteristics, as well as the newest trends in Internet development, strengthen top-level design, build and Internet legal system, earnestly conduct surveys and research, focus on aspects such as crucial infrastructure, Internet resources, information security, junk information, online copyright, e-commerce, cybercrime and other areas, and timely carry out corresponding legislation and legal revision work.

Comrades, friends! Our country’s realization of the transition from being a large network country to being a strong network country is inseparable from the powerful leadership of the Party and the government, and is inseparable from the joint efforts of the industry and the vigorous participation of all walks of society. The universe is boundless, the Milky Way is resplendent. In a future era when everything is connected, it will be the Internet that connects heaven, earth and humankind, and every one of us will be a weaver of this “web”, let us cooperate in jointly building an even brighter tomorrow for China’s Internet.